The Angry Black Female Athlete

“She’s so aggressive, she’s a thug!” The policing of Black women’s emotions is a tale as old as time.

Ziga Poromon

Published in

Gals Got Game ⚡️

6 min readJan 14, 2024

The Angry Black Female Athlete all in white caps. A photo of Lauren James with one sleeve rolled of her jersey. Another photo beside her of Angel Reese pointing to her ring finger at Caitlin Clark — Created by: Ziga P | Credit: Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated

Angry Black Girl

This negative stereotype has been attached to Black girls and women in all industries and situations. When we don’t fit their ideals, when we stand up for ourselves, when we make mistakes, when we show no emotion, we are labelled as angry. Anger is a normal emotion that all humans experience, but why is it different when Black people feel or show it?

The A.B.G. Myth goes back to the 19th century when African-American women were mocked by white men in minstrel shows and portrayed as unhuman, unladylike, and ugly. 1

Today, commentators and critics call out the “disrespectful” or “lazy” behaviour of Black athletes. I see sports media accounts make public posts and leave the comment section open for all types of racism, misogyny, and harassment to take place.

And yes, it is about RACE. The intersectionality of race and gender play a huge role in the experiences of Black female athletes.

Making Mistakes — Lauren James & Katie McCabe

Blue Chelsea FC kit Lauren James and Red and White Arsenal Katie McCabe playing football. They’re making contact and fighting for the ball — Creator: Steve Bardens | Credit: Getty Images

On December 10, 2023, Chelsea FC faced Arsenal’s Womens team in a WSL match. In that game, Chelsea forward Lauren James stepped on the foot of Arsenal’s Lia Walti. James got a yellow.

Before I continue, I’m a huge Chelsea FC fan. I’m also a huge Lauren James fan. But, I’ve left all rivalry beef at the door before writing this piece, and my “London is Blue” bias. I am not shying away from criticizing my favourite players.

However, this is more than just a player making a stupid, dangerous move. It’s the abuse she gets for doing it, whether it’s intentional or just a silly mistake (which we really don’t know). Unfortunately, James has been receiving extremely horrible abuse from football fans since she stepped on Nigerian player, Michelle Alozie’s back in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.2 What she did was wrong. We know that obviously! But to this day, she’s still being criticized for it, even though she’s served her punishment AND Alozie forgave the situation. When a Nigerian says, “Abeg, rest,” it means shut up and move on (I am Nigerian, I know). STOP BRINGING IT UP!

Honestly, football fans to stop acting like they’re new to seeing dangerous or aggressive play in the game. Luis Suarez (bites people. On numerous occasions). Sergio Ramos (I’ve never seen so many Best Fights and Angry moments videos).

Irish National Team and Arsenal player, Katie McCabe, is vocal about her aggressive style of play and actually encourages that the league get rid of yellow cards.3 In the same CHE v. ARS game, McCabe elbowed a Chelsea player, but did not get the same level of response as James did from fans and news outlets. I find it comical how blatantly racist this is. WoSo fans know that McCabe is the most physical player in the game right now. She easily racks up red cards like Beyonce racks up Grammy awards. But her aggression is seen as passion. White player = not intentional. Light-hearted jokes get made about McCabe’s yellow cards.

Black player = intentional, needs to work on their attitude, and must be removed from the sport. People were calling James everything but a child of God. I was livid! You would have thought she permanently injured Walti. James herself doesn’t even show anger when she plays, she seems super chill, even when she makes mistakes. If players who have done or been accused of even worse things like sexual or physical abuse (M. Greenwood), blackmail over a sex-tape (Benzema), rape (B. Mendy), and murder (Alonso) can continue to play (and get paid millions), then people should lay off Lauren’s case and give her leniency. Abeg!

Tweet from @AllyLobster says, “All yall posting that LJ is a dirty player… i’m still waiting for you to also criticize the white plater who’s well known for her dirty plays. You know, like elbowing someone on the other team in the face when they weren’t even near the ball? — X (formerly known as Twitter): @AllyLobster

Lauren James is young and still in the early stages of her career. She should be allowed to MAKE and LEARN from her mistakes (which she has only two incidents under her belt. TWO). We already know she has the talent. We also know that she’s human. No one should have to go through the abuse she had to endure.

Trash-talking

We see this with LSU Women’s Basketball star Angel Reese doing the John Cena “you can’t see me” hand gesture to White player, Caitlin Clark, during the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. Down to her trash-talk, her hair, and her nails, Reese was ripped apart on social media for being too “hood”.4

What Reese did was witty, and the epitome of an athlete. Taunting your opponents AND winning the chip? Iconic. Trash-talking is a key part of playing sports. If you can run your mouth on your opponents and have the talent to back it up, no complaining from me. It’s like, people love fiesty competition until it’s a Black person doing it. Now all of a sudden, sports is a place for cordiality. Get that garbage outta here (shout out to Jack Armstrong)!

We’re not watching a royal ball, we’re watching players who are hungry for victory sweat their butts off and fight to the end. Other white players like Clark and former Louisville player Hailey Van Lith, have done the same trash-talking to other players and were cheered on. Reese put fire in the kitchen, and people couldn’t handle it (they would never last in The Bear).

Criticism

Anyone can be criticized, no matter who they are or what they look like. Black women are certainly not immune to it. However, there is a difference between respectfully giving criticism, and downright bullying someone. Regardless of a referees decision, the response from viewers is incredibly toxic and harmful to Black female athletes.

Tweet from @jlb26 that says, “ THIS is what we mean by blatant bias and racism in football. everyone, inc so called neutral posting the LJ clip, even BBC sports. but not a word about this elbow to the face from a white player??? nobody calling her dirty, agressive, disgrace, etc. THAT is the difference — X (formerly known as Twitter): @jlb26_

White women are allowed to be angry and confident. It’s passion for the game! Black women have to walk on egg-shells or else they will provoke everyone. I remember playing on the Sr. Girls team in Jr. high school and my coach berated me in front of the team because I slapped my hand at the wall in frustration (we were losing badly, my gosh). My coaches reaction always rubbed me the wrong way because I’d seen other (non-Black) players get mad and almost fight opponents. But now he wants to talk about attitude and how I’m the example of how not to act? Yes, Black athletes do bad things sometimes. Yes, they may do actions that seem “cocky” or “arrogant”. But so does everyone else in sport.

For any fan/viewer, reporter/journalist, or coach, it’s important to examine your own biases when watching Black girls and women in sports. If you react over a white athlete who does something, then keep that same energy for when a Black athlete that does it. BUT, that energy has to be constructive. Derogatory comments towards athletes, especially BIPOC women, must be eradicated. Sports should be a safe space for Black girls and women to play the game they love. You don’t need to like them as a player, but you must respect them as a human being.